A Kunoichi's Story: Book One
by Rhoswen Eolande
Summary: What if just one thing had been different - Kiba and Tenten had switched places in age? Tenten becomes a member of the Rookie Nine. Tenten, Hinata, and Ino end up impressing a Chuunin Yuuhi Kurenai, who agrees to start training them on the side two and a half years before their Genin Exam graduation date. Let's see what three girls can do in two and a half years.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

"My name is Yuuhi Kurenai and I will be your substitute teacher while Iruka is sick and -" Kurenai calmly ducked underneath the bucket of paint walloped in her direction, removed the tack from the teacher's desk chair, and stood, straightening. "And I do not have the same tolerance for pranks that your regular teacher does, Uzumaki Naruto," she said without emotion.

Naruto was staring wordlessly. He'd gone all out for this substitute teacher. No one had ever dodged two of his pranks at once before!

Kurenai walked up to him and considered him, smirking. He looked the part of the class clown - messy blond hair, a teasing grin, and brightly colored clothing. "I think… perhaps you should do every math question in your textbook, Uzumaki Naruto?"

"But - but that would take more than one day!" Naruto protested, horrified.

Kurenai leaned over until she was close to his face. "Then you had better start very quickly," she said quietly, and walked back up to her place at the front of the room.

Tenten was watching in throes of ecstasy. This kunoichi woman meant business! Nothing like the bland Suzume-sensei, who taught the proper and refined kunoichi arts. Yuuhi Kurenai wore a seductive wrap dress around generous curves; her shiny black hair curled past ruby red lips that matched the crimson in her eyes. She was not cruel, necessarily, but she was calm and considering and she didn't show emotion very much.

Tenten aspired to be like that one day.

Hinata was watching Naruto in concern. He was bent over his textbook, but was frowning hopelessly down at the first question. It was obvious he couldn't solve it. How was he supposed to finish before the end of class if he couldn't even get past problem one?

Sakura was snickering in Naruto's direction, but Ino merely watched with a smirk. It was Uzumaki's own fault; no one intelligent pitted themselves against an obviously older and stronger ninja with completely unknown abilities. She appreciated the fact that Kurenai-sensei hadn't made them all suffer because Naruto had messed up. Iruka _loved_ doing that, reminding them all that on a ninja team one action could affect the whole group, and Ino hated it.

"So," said Kurenai, "I hear that on the agenda for today, we have a lecture in the morning and then taijutsu sparring in the afternoon?" She clapped her hands once. "Let's get started."

She lectured on ninja history for the morning, and they all took notes. Naruto was still trying hopelessly to get through his first ten problems, and Hinata kept watching him out of the corner of her eye. Finally, when the bell rang, Ino and Sakura followed all the other vapid fangirls out the classroom door after Sasuke, Shino left alone, Shikamaru and Chouji left together, and Tenten ventured up toward Kurenai with a canny and eager eye.

But Kurenai was watching Hinata. She'd just approached Naruto.

"N-Naruto-kun -"

Naruto looked up flatly. "What?"

"U-umm… that is… I don't mean to be insulting, but… do you need… help?" Hinata finally squeaked out timidly. She had short bluish-black hair, a round face, and the trademark silvery pupil-less Hyuuga clan eyes; she wore a big baggy sweatshirt and pants and her fingers played around with each other as she spoke to Naruto, her face flushed with premonitive embarrassment.

Naruto's face broke in relief. "Could you?" he pleaded.

"Y-yes of course." Hinata sat down beside him.

"Thanks, Hinata. You're really nice. Hey, no offense, but… why are you helping me?" Naruto added curiously.

"Indeed, Hinata, it is very kind of you. And why are you helping him?" Kurenai spoke up.

Hinata and Naruto both gasped and looked around. Kurenai was walking over, hands behind her back, a curious Tenten following along behind her.

Naruto looked nervous, but Hinata was remarkably serene. "I helped him because he is a comrade," she said simply, "who needed my help."

Kurenai nodded, giving a small smile, and Naruto relaxed. "You are indeed very kind. You are a Hyuuga, yes?"

"Er, yes - but, that is - I'm not particularly -" Hinata had looked down, stammering, her courage failing again.

"Your sister is clan heiress, not you," Kurenai filled in for her.

"Yes." Hinata winced and kept her eyes on her hands.

"Yet I have met Hanabi. And she does not have half the ninja professionalism that you have," said Kurenai, and Hinata looked up tentatively. Her sister was a spoiled brat, but Kurenai decided not to add that part.

"Yeah, Hinata! You rock!" said Naruto, and Hinata blushed and smiled.

"Thank you," she whispered to Kurenai.

"Hey, if you're looking to get stronger… you and I could train together!" said Tenten brightly. "I'm always looking for a new sparring partner. Girls like us have to pair up against all the silly Sasuke fangirls."

Hinata smiled. "That would be great," she said quietly, a bit shy.

"Tenten… you wanted to talk to me. What is it about?" asked Kurenai curiously.

"Well, it's just - I love seeing strong female ninja!" said Tenten, impassioned. She wore pants, a Chinese silk shirt, and brown hair in a double bun chignon; she was small and slim, she had warm brown eyes and a heart shaped face. "I'm not from a clan and I live in an orphanage, but I want to become an amazing kunoichi someday! Like the legendary Tsunade!"

"The legendary Tsunade, huh? Lofty aspirations," said Kurenai thoughtfully. "It seems to me like you could do with a bit of Hinata's humility, and Hinata could do with a bit of your strength. Perhaps you would be good for each other."

Hinata and Tenten looked at each other thoughtfully.

At last, the rest of the class came back in. Tenten decided to sit next to Hinata, who was sitting next to Naruto. Sasuke - pale, reserved, dark haired and eyed, and handsome - walked in, found his seat taken, scoffed, and went somewhere else. Sakura walked in, saw her seat taken, and she just had to open her mouth and say it.

"You had to take my spot, didn't you, Naruto? Why are you sitting by Hinata? Are the two of you _finally_ dating?" asked Sakura scathingly.

Even Ino, the queen of icy retorts, froze as the classroom went dead silent. Hinata's face was flaming hot. Tenten thought it was cruel and tactless… but so did Ino, who was by her own admission a bubbly and flirtatious but heartless bitch.

"Wh-what?! No, Sakura-chan, no, I don't feel anything for Hinata! I want to be dating _you_!" Naruto stood, panicked, and blurted out the words.

Tears filled Hinata's eyes. She stood, and ran sobbing from the classroom. Tenten stood to follow her. "You know, Naruto, you have a reputation for being a moron, but sometimes you really do fit the bill!" she snapped, and ran after Hinata.

"Wha - what -?"

"She's had a crush on you since you were six, jackass, and you're the only person who hadn't figured it out yet," Ino snapped at Naruto. Naruto was stunned into silence. Then she turned, smirking, to Sakura, who'd grown quiet. "Well congratulations, Forehead Girl. You win the prize for being the only person in the class more tactless than Uzumaki Naruto."

Sakura frowned defensively at her rival. "If she wanted Naruto, she should have stuck up for herself."

"Oh, like you with Sasuke?"

"You do the exact same thing!" said Sakura, outraged.

"Yeah, because of _you_. Duh." Ino rolled her eyes. "I wasn't going to say anything about it until you broke up our friendship and went chasing after him like an idiot."

Sakura gasped, and so did several other members of the class. That was mean even for the Queen of Popular, Ino.

"And if you don't want me to be honest to you," Ino added heatedly, "the answer is simple. Stop throwing words around yourself and hurting the feelings of defenseless little girls."

And Sakura watched the girl she'd modeled herself after - the ever popular, queen of diets Ino - walk away from a perfectly good fight and leave the room to go look after Tenten and Hinata.

* * *

She found them in the bathroom. Hinata was crying inside a stall and Tenten was knelt beside her, patting her back.

"He didn't deserve you," she said sympathetically, just as Ino walked in. Tenten glared. "What do you want, Yamanaka?"

"I came to see if Hinata's okay," said Ino reservedly.

"Oh, don't give me that, you're just like the rest of them," Tenten snapped.

"Excuse me?" said Ino heatedly. "I wasn't the one out there running my mouth like a moron!"

"... Fair point," Tenten admitted, sighing. She just resented everything Ino represented. Ino had a swishing ponytail of blonde hair and ice blue eyes; she wore a revealing little black kunoichi dress and too much makeup. She was everything Tenten was not, with the perfect oval face and perfect hourglass body.

She was a fangirl - silly, vapid, and ridiculous. She was not the serious kunoichi that Tenten prided herself on being.

"Hinata, if it's any consolation," sighed Ino, leaning against a wall, "I let Sakura and Naruto have it back there in the classroom."

"You defended Hinata?" said Tenten, surprised.

"How do you think I became friends with Forehead Girl?" said Ino, smiling humorlessly. "I saved her from bullies and invited her into my popular friends group. Serves me right. She learned everything she could from me and then broke it off with me to go chasing after Sasuke - the guy _I_ liked. And, I mean - I had to defend my territory, you know?"

Tenten didn't know, but she was relieved that Ino at least wasn't a completely terrible person.

"I just can't believe it…" Hinata sobbed. "My own family hates me, and now Naruto-kun…"

"Why does your family hate you?" Ino asked, surprised and nonplussed.

Hinata looked up, sniffling, and smiled. "You want to hear a story?" she asked, amused and tearful. And she told the story of a little girl who was always being bullied by her family because she didn't want to hit her sister in sparring sessions, who eventually lost in a big fight against her sister and lost her place in the clan echelons.

Ino paused. "That's ridiculous," she scoffed.

"Ino!" said Tenten, outraged.

"What? It is," said Ino challengingly. Hinata's eyes were wide. "Listen, Hinata. When you fight against someone in a spar, you're helping them improve. They're actually _less_ likely to die out on the field because of you. You're helping them survive, not hurting them."

Ino turned to Tenten.

"And you, you want Kurenai to notice you, right?" Ino was nothing if not observant. "Then the choice is obvious. You have to impress her as a ninja."

"That's… actually good advice," said Tenten, almost suspicious.

Ino sighed and rolled her eyes. "Well, yeah. My Dad may not recognize me as a Yamanaka yet, but he has ridiculously high standards. I have some of the best grades in the class. The only place I don't beat Forehead Girl is in academics. And that's because she's, like, some sort of fucking genius, apparently."

Hinata and Tenten snorted and smiled. Hinata's tears had dried somewhat.

"A pity it's wasted on her," Tenten ventured.

Ino smiled. "Yeah," she said. "It's a gigantic tragedy. She's weak, flimsy, obnoxious, and irritating. I suppose she could aggravate her opponent to death."

"Oh, that's so mean!" said Hinata, smiling despite herself, and Tenten and Ino laughed.

"So, you had advice for us. We have advice for you." Tenten stood. "I'm not going to harp on you about makeup or fashion or looking good -"

"Thank God."

"That's your own choice," Tenten continued gamely. "But if you keep dieting and exercising, Ino, you're actually going to lose strength as a ninja. You could pass out. You could even die - when the body has no fat left, it -"

"Eats away at the muscles, including the heart," said Ino, her expression suddenly shuttered. "Yeah. I know. Health is important to me… but I guess that's different. But how am I supposed to beat Forehead Girl if she's always fighting to keep the perfect body and I'm not?"

"That's where my advice comes in," said Hinata quietly. "Ino, you can date or crush on whoever you want to. But… I think it's time you let Sakura go."

Kurenai stood outside the bathroom listening as silence fell. She'd come to check on Hinata, but now the cogs in her head had begun turning. She _was_ training for the Jounin Exam… She was due to take it in two years.

Six months before these three nine-year-old-girls graduated.

* * *

The girls all came back to the classroom, chatting.

They'd found that Tenten loved frequenting weapons shops and was a little witch in training, filled with fortune telling cards and herbal remedies. Ino was very traditionally girly; she loved shopping, helped her Mom with their family flower shop, she owned hundreds of makeup and perfume bottles, and she had her own breathy ASMR video website. Hinata loved books, music, movies, arts, and crafts - she could paint and draw, she liked singing surprisingly much for such a shy girl, and one of her favorite hobbies was flower pressing.

Then when they came back to class, they were reminded: "Taijutsu sparring out in the back field," said Kurenai. "Everyone follow me."

All the students surrounded the two combatants, who went at it without head or hand gear, stomping and clapping and cheering in a back field. Kurenai, as the teacher, proctored, judging when a fight was over. Kurenai had already decided she wanted to test a few things.

Today, the first two combatants were: "Haruno Sakura versus Yamanaka Ino!"

Ino and Sakura stood to face each other in the circle. Ino was reserved, holding back, taunting Sakura but constantly hanging back and keeping her distance. She fought mechanically, enough to put in a good showing - but, hypocritically she knew, not enough to hurt her former best friend. Sakura lashed out, unusually fiery - she wanted to prove to everyone that she was not someone to be humiliated by Yamanaka Ino!

In another timeline, when Ino and Sakura first fought, they were equals. Sakura had been fighting alongside Naruto and Sasuke in Team Seven for several months. She had blossomed.

This was not that timeline.

Sakura at last got too far inside Ino's guard and Ino lashed out in a surprised punch, cold cocking Sakura and taking her down in a single blow. Sakura fell to the ground, unconscious. "Shit - Sakura! Sakura!" Ino ran over and bent down over her former friend.

Everyone had crowded around them, and in the chaos, Ino felt a hand fall on her shoulder from behind. A soft voice. It was Sasuke's.

"Get out now," he murmured. "Perhaps you are not such a bad person or a weak ninja. In that case, get out while you can. My only goal in life is a single minded tenacity to murder one man, much stronger than I am. Even in a world where I acknowledge you, this doesn't end the way you want it to end."

The hand was removed, and Ino knelt there, her breath coming in short gasps.

Sakura suddenly jumped awake, bloody-faced. "Sasuke! Sasuke-kun! He didn't see me, did he?" She just looked so _desperate_.

Perhaps Hinata was right. Perhaps it was time to let Sakura go.

Ino stood. "I surrender, Sakura," she said, swallowing her pride, and everyone gasped and went suddenly silent once more. "You can have him."

As she walked away, she heard Sakura cheering behind her, heedless of her pain. In a final moment of vindictiveness, Ino never told Sakura what Sasuke had said. Sakura continued to chase Sasuke, and get nowhere, for the next two and a half years.

Apparently, he only imparted knowledge of his future to people he felt were worth it.

* * *

Ino went to join Tenten and Hinata in the crowds.

"What about all your popular friends?" said Tenten in surprise.

"I doubt they want to hang out with someone who just openly gave up on Uchiha Sasuke," said Ino, smiling wryly. The girls were glaring at her in disbelief from a distance. "What about all your guy friends, Tenten?"

"I decided it was a girls day for a change," said Tenten mischievously. "I doubt the guys'll miss me."

"And I have no friends," said Hinata simply. "I am too quiet."

"I'm hurt, Hinata," said Ino dryly. "It's like I'm not even here."

Tenten laughed. Hinata's eyes widened, and then she smiled.

"Good job, Ino," she said warmly. "I guess we both learned something today."

"That we did," Ino admitted.

"Next up: Tenten versus Uzumaki Naruto!"

"This should be easy, Tenten, impressing Kurenai." Ino smirked. "I'll be here to make fun of you if it's not."

"Comforting, Ino."

"Tenten…" Ino and Tenten looked over at Hinata hesitantly. "Kick his butt!" Hinata said, frowning fiercely.

Tenten smiled. "No problem."

She stood across the circle from Naruto. Naruto was impulsive, reckless, stupid, and weak, a unique combination. So in theory, if she just waited…

Sure enough, Naruto charged at her head-on, his guard wide open. Tenten swept his feet, elbowed him in the face, and as he fell and his face ate dirt she sat on him and pinned his arms behind his back.

"That's what you get for hurting my friend, motherfucker!" she snapped. Naruto was groaning beneath her. She yanked at his arms and he shouted; Ino was smirking and Tenten snickered.

"Winner of the first fight: Yamanaka Ino. Winner of the next fight: Tenten."

Tenten stood and as she walked away, Kurenai murmured, "Very well done." Tenten smiled proudly, and kept walking.

"Next up: Hyuuga Hinata versus Uchiha Sasuke!"

Hinata swallowed, her eyes widening.

"Hey, Hinata, you'll do fine," said Tenten in concern.

"Hinata. Remember what I said." They looked over at Ino, who was reserved again. "Fight him like it'll save his life," she said. Then she smiled. "And kick his ass."

Confidence filled Hinata. She nodded, and smiled. "Okay!"

She walked into the circle to face Sasuke, who was dark and forbidding. She had to think her way through this one. Sasuke didn't expect her to put her whole heart into the fight - he didn't expect to be fighting a Jyuuken specialist. He was also arrogant enough that he naturally expected to win. He had an ego bigger than her father's, and Hinata privately knew that was saying something.

So.

She had watched him carefully. And she knew one of his usual tricks. He knocked the fighter over and pinned them down on the first turn.

Sure enough, he flew at her, knocked her to the ground.

"Winner: Uchi -" Kurenai began in disappointment, but then she paused as people began looking closer. "Wait a minute…"

Hinata was pinned down - but she'd hit a Jyuuken strike directly into Sasuke's exposed navel. He paused, coughed, vomited up blood, and then collapsed on his side. Hinata stood.

"Jyuuken," she told the watching crowd in a small but determined voice. "I hit the victim's tenketsu points, causing massive internal organ damage. As he is now, it would be relatively easy for me to strike again at his heart, and kill him -" She arced a hand right above a silent, shaking Sasuke. "However, Jyuuken can also be used to open tenketsu back up, thus healing."

She placed a touch again to Sasuke's navel and he stopped shaking, righting himself magically.

"Hence, Jyuuken. Gentle Fist. Touches kill. It is a Hyuuga clan art," said Hinata. She turned to Sasuke. "When you attack someone so thoughtlessly, you leave certain parts of yourself wide open to assault. Do not forget this."

Sasuke nodded, looking surprised and respectful.

Kurenai smiled. "Winner," said said, "Hyuuga Hinata."

Ino and Tenten were cheering.

* * *

The three of them were walking off campus together at the end of the day, elated, when Kurenai approached them.

"Girls, you all did very well today," she said, and they smiled proudly. "I leave class after today, but I would like to continue seeing you all improve. I would like to offer you all my services as a Chuunin level private tutor - free of charge. You would go to the Academy, but be additionally trained by me in more specialized fighting arts on top of that. And you would be left the stronger for it.

"But I only offer this if I can tutor all three of you at once. Like a team."

"We don't know anything about you," Ino pointed out.

Kurenai smiled. "I am a genjutsu specialist," she said. "My father is the headmaster here. I am twenty-four years old, and working toward Jounin rank. I enjoy botany and wine tasting."

"Ah. Classy science lady," said Ino thoughtfully. "... Yeah. I accept."

"So do I," said Tenten, smiling widely.

Even Hinata was smiling. "... As do I," she said.

And so it began.

* * *

Author's Note: This is my first Rhoswen Eolande _Naruto_ fic. I am a super-sensitive NF with an anxiety disorder. Please don't hurt me.

Other notes... this story will end with the start of canon. I plan on making the start of canon a separate book. This is a story focusing on the growth of three girls under a strong woman mentor.

Their Academy era training - kunoichi arts training, spiritual development, Academy level fighting skills - will not be covered. Those seem kind of obvious. The focus will be on the girls' interpersonal relationships, aspirations, specialized skills training, and friendship.

I didn't mean to bash Sakura in this chapter, though I guess it kind of came out that way. I do feel a bit sorry for Sakura; I'm not going to just throw her to the wolves. But in part one, she was the most obnoxious, grating female character for me, and I guess that comes out in my work. I also meant for you to feel a bit sorry for Sasuke and Naruto, poor guys.

I don't plan on changing the girls too much in basic personality or appearance. They will go through character development, but will hopefully continue to be believably themselves.

I needed Ino and Hinata to give up their crushes in order for the story to do what I wanted it to do. I'm sick to death of boy-obsessed _Naruto_ characters anyway. A woman's life does not have to revolve around a man.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Kurenai met with her new students in an empty training field the next afternoon.

They had just come from school, where they hung out more with each other. Naruto kept giving Hinata funny, confused looks, Sakura had looked curious about the change in Ino, and all the more rough and tumble guys in the class were obviously wondering why the hell Tenten was hanging around with women, especially a girl like Yamanaka. Ino's former friends started spreading rumors, which hurt her more than she liked to admit. Vindictive till the end, she spread the return rumor that the girls were jealous because she was still beating them in class, which might not be purely a rumor, come to think of it.

But now they were here, and training with Kurenai was what was important.

"I am going to teach all three of you the art of genjutsu," she said. "However, I also want you to improve your clan skills during this time as well. Tenten, as you have no clan scrolls, what would you like to specialize in? I can get scrolls for that area of specialization from within the ninja archives."

"Well… I've always been fascinated by weapons," Tenten admitted.

"A weapons specialist, then?" Tenten nodded eagerly. "I can do that. I would recommend specializing in the sword, the tanto knife, the pole, the chain, senbon needles, kunai and shuriken, ninja wire, and explosive tags. You should also keep a physical dome shield handy inside a sealing scroll, to block off attacks. Most weapons specialists hide all their weapons inside the seals within storage scrolls, then keep the storage scrolls on their person, so I'll buy you several of those as well. Once using storage scrolls, you can unseal all weapons at once in a ninjutsu-style barrage attack.

"Ino, Hinata, in the interests of being upfront, would you like to explain what your clans do?"

"Well, you already know a lot about mine," said Hinata. "We use our Byakugan eyes in our Jyuuken taijutsu." She made a hand seal and her eyes gained intense-looking pupils, the veins around her eyeballs bulging with chakra. "Byakugan eyes can see through anything and for long distances. We look into a person's chakra coils, and shut down their tenketsu, causing massive internal organ damage with small chakra taps.

"However, the Hyuuga have another ability: we can emanate chakra from all of our own tenketsu at once. This can be used to free us from prisons, cut through techniques, or shield us from blows. It helps us fend off long distance attacks."

"And my clan, the Yamanaka, specialize in mind techniques," said Ino, shrugging. "Our biggest techniques involve either entering a person's mind, leaving our own body vulnerable but taking over that person's body as a hostage and reading their mind, or actually controlling a person's body from within our own body but not being able to enter or read their mind. When we enter a mind, our body gains all the injuries their body does. With body control, that's not the case, making it more useful for battle-type situations.

"The really good Yamanaka can catch a person from every angle, or control multiple people at once. Theoretically, I could use multiple person body control to force an entire squadron of enemies to kill each other.

"So we're going to learn all those things… then genjutsu on top of that?" Ino grinned. "Badass."

"Yes. As you can see from all of your individual abilities, your personal techniques have weaknesses as long as the person can see where you are. Ino has a certain range after which her control techniques can no longer reach someone. Tenten and Hinata are mainly close distance fighters. If someone can see you, they can thwart you by jumping out of range or keeping a safe distance away from you using techniques.

"But if the person _can't_ see where you are… such as when you put them under a multiple layer genjutsu, so that they break out of one illusion only to fall into another… then it's a whole different story. Even the fighter with the tightest defenses leaves themselves vulnerable from another angle if they direct all their fighting power toward the person they _think_ is across from them. And multiple layer genjutsu, if not explained, can also really psyche a ninja out - there's nothing like making a ninja doubt what is real to freak them out. I, for example, am a genjutsu specialist, but I've also mastered taijutsu. I put a mirage in front of someone and then cripple them with a physical attack from elsewhere."

Kurenai smiled. The girls were grinning, excited, and their enthusiasm was nice to see.

"So get your clan scrolls from your clans. Tenten, I will bring your scrolls to our next meeting, from the archives. I will also help you buy the weapons you need."

"Thank you, Kurenai-sensei," said Tenten, bowing low in genuine gratefulness. It was something she'd been worrying about.

"Now. On to what we have on the agenda for today." Kurenai went over to the nearest tree. "Tree climbing."

"... Climbing a tree is going to help us become better ninja?" asked Ino, nonplussed, and the other two girls also looked confused.

Kurenai's lips twitched toward an amused smile. "You're sort of right," she said. "The real point of the thing is _how_ you climb the tree. That is, without using hands. Let me demonstrate." She made a hand seal and channeled chakra, and the soles of her feet glowed blue. She began walking sideways straight up the tree, no hands. The girls gasped.

"This is exercise one," she said. "Channel chakra into the soles of your feet, supposedly the hardest place to channel chakra, and use that chakra to walk straight up virtually any sideways or upside down surface. Now. Exercise two."

She walked back down the tree and walked over to the nearby creek, her feet still glowing blue. She began walking straight over the top of the water.

"Water walking," she said. "Using chakra to keep yourself steady on unsteady surfaces. Exercise three, at last, does not involve your feet."

The glowing in her feet faded. She walked over, picked up a leaf, and her hand glowed blue. The leaf _curled_ in the flat palm of her hand without Kurenai ever touching it.

"Leaf bending," she said. "Moving something small with chakra without ever touching it once.

"These exercises - tree climbing, water walking, and leaf bending - will be useful to you for several reasons. First, once you do them, you will be able to channel chakra into your legs and arms to make yourselves stronger and faster during fights. That's the more obvious application.

"However, it's also important for genjutsu. Illusions require high levels of chakra control and enormous intelligence. This is because genjutsu involves feeding a highly controlled trickle of chakra into the victim's cerebral nervous system, and then setting a detailed and imaginative false sensory experience there without them noticing. It can be done even from great distances for those experienced and talented in the art.

"And while your grades in chakra control and intelligence cannot compare to Haruno Sakura's -" Here, the girls rolled their eyes and made a face. "Your chakra control and intelligence skills are still, to all reports, very great. And unlike Haruno Sakura, you have the correct ninja mentality.

"So I expect that you will master these chakra control exercises very quickly. However, you also need to work on building up chakra endurance - maintaining genjutsu, especially multi layered genjutsu, requires more chakra than you yourselves have right now. So while your chakra control is great, your chakra amount is low."

"How do we fix that?" asked Tenten, frowning.

"The answer is simple. You do these exercises - over, and over, and over again. We will do this for a solid week. Only then will we move on to actual genjutsu related exercises.

"In the meantime, familiarize yourselves with your other specialized ability scrolls. My idea is that you will learn both genjutsu and your own specialized skill at the same time.

"So. Let's begin."

The girls started with tree climbing. They took a kunai, ran up the side of the tree using chakra, and marked their highest point with the kunai. Then they fell back down, and tried again, attempting to beat their best level of height.

As Kurenai had said, they moved quickly from getting all the way to the top of the tree, to getting their feet and ankles wet trying to walk atop the water of the creek. Once they had mastered water walking, they sat there and concentrated on leaves, feeling rather stupid, until, with sudden explosive cheers from them, their leaf managed to move of its own accord.

This whole process didn't take very long. But as Kurenai had demanded, they then continued to go through the exercises over - and over - and over again. It was almost mind numbing. They also sparred with each other, getting accustomed to the feeling of making themselves faster and stronger using chakra in fights.

It finally happened.

They got dirty and worked up a sweat, and though Ino and Tenten felt like complaining, Hinata's calm acceptance of the hard work motivated them not to make a sound. And though Hinata felt like giving up at times when she did badly, she saw that Ino and Tenten never gave up and she didn't want to let them down. So they were good for each other.

But finally Ino, who was still dieting, passed out.

She began to fall at a great distance, from the tree. The other three panicked; in a second, Kurenai was underneath Ino at the base of the tree; meanwhile, Tenten and Hinata had sprinted down their respective trees and caught Ino by the legs. They let her gently down into Kurenai's waiting arms.

* * *

Ino felt cold water splash on her face from a water bottle and she blinked awake. Her vision was blurry, her head was pounding, and she felt nauseous. "Ugh…" she groaned.

"Ino. You didn't eat this morning, did you?" asked Kurenai. She was outwardly calm, but her eyes flashed and there was anger in her voice.

Ino winced. "... No," she admitted.

Tenten sighed and shook her head. Kurenai said with a voice of icy steel, "What you do on your own time is your business, but I will from now on bring you a big meal during every training session and you will eat it half an hour before we start training. My time, my rules."

Ino sat up.

"You have to eat something," said Hinata in concern, offering the packed lunch she'd brought with her.

"I'm not hungry," Ino muttered.

"That's because you're sick," said Kurenai, her voice still tight with anger (which was how she expressed her worry). "This is the time when you need to eat the most. Force some food down and you'll feel better."

So Ino started eating. She refused to admit it… but it _did_ make her feel better.

"You shouldn't be dieting at all," Tenten scolded, irritated. "It's not like you need it."

Ino was silent, torn. Didn't she need to get skinnier to have the perfect body?

* * *

She was still thinking about this when she went home for the day. When she entered the house, her father said with approval, "You have been training all this time, Ino?"

"That's what it looks like," said Ino sourly.

Her father, a quiet man who worked Intel for ANBU, offered her a genuine smile. "Very good."

Ordinarily, Ino would have bragged and preened herself upon any hint of approval toward her training methods, but right now she was too distracted.

"Ino," her mother, a dignified older woman, asked frowning from the kitchen. "What's wrong?"

"Dad," said Ino, troubled, "can I have the Yamanaka clan scrolls? I want to practice their techniques with this new tutor I have. She's going to teach me how to combine genjutsu with the Yamanaka control techniques."

Her father's eyebrows rose in surprise. "Certainly," he said after a moment, exchanging puzzled looks with Ino's mother. "I'm glad you're taking an interest. It sounds fascinating. If you have any questions, I'll be glad to answer them."

Ino wandered up the stairs and stared at her body in her floor length bedroom mirror. She'd die before she admitted it to anyone else, but all she saw were her body's flaws: the obvious curves, the little rolls of fat here and there. Pathetic for both a ninja and a woman, she thought. What must other people think? Popular girls were supposed to be skinnier; Ino still hadn't entirely given up on this dream and idea.

But Tenten had said she didn't need to be on a diet. Had she been lying? What on earth could Tenten mean?

* * *

Tenten entered the long, rambling building in the evening. It might have been a clan compound, except it was rundown, surrounded by weeds and hundreds of dirty, shouting children without surnames.

The orphanage.

Tenten entered and the matron immediately shouted and bemoaned at the state of her. "Tenten! Again? What on earth have you been doing?!" She said this every time.

"Training," said Tenten tightly.

The matron scowled and glared at her, hands on her hips, her age showing on the ever-deepening wrinkles in her sour face. "Still haven't given up on your pipe dream of becoming a ninja, then?"

"No," said Tenten flatly, glaring, eyes fiery.

"Well, you will soon enough," the matron dismissed. "Shoo! Go! To your room! Clean up!" All her orders came in a bark, in a snap. She waved Tenten away.

Tenten walked down the long, bare, clinical corridors to her tiny single room. There, she collapsed down on her bed and glared up at the cracks in the ceiling as if they were at fault.

"Someday," she muttered quietly, "I'm going to get out of here. I'm going to have a ninja clan name and my own home. And I'm going to be one of the most amazing kunoichi that's ever lived."

This was her mantra. She repeated it to herself every night. Only now, when Kurenai had promised her genjutsu lessons and training scrolls and a whole host of brand new weapons and storage seals, did it seem genuinely within her grasp.

She promised herself that she would do whatever Kurenai asked of her, as long as it would get her out of this place. As long as it would make her a worthwhile ninja.

* * *

Hinata entered the quiet, magnificent Hyuuga clan compound late in the evening. Again. She looked up, and swallowed. Her father, tall, cold, chilly, and dignified, was waiting for her.

"You are late again," he said in a soft voice, but behind it lurked danger.

"I-I was training," Hinata offered timidly. She'd always felt more natural around her mother, but her mother had died years ago.

"Well, then let's see the results of this magnificent training. We are having the clan spars. Come with me." He turned around, and she followed him silently down hallways to the clan sparring room, a large space covered with mats.

This was a Hyuuga clan ritual. Once a week, the entire clan got together and watched the clan children fight one another, hoping that they would slowly improve in the Hyuuga arts. Hanabi was standing on the mat, and Hinata's heart nearly stopped.

"You have never been able to defeat your younger sister," said their father in a voice of enormous sarcasm. "Perhaps all your magnificent training will enable you to." There were low chuckles from the clan elders sitting off to the side. _Everyone_ was watching.

"Y-yes, Father," was all Hinata could say helplessly. She faced her sister on the mat. Neji, their cousin, older but closest to them in age, looked contemptuous and skeptical from his viewing place.

Hanabi looked like their mother, slim and beautiful with long dark hair. Hinata cared for her dearly, in spite of their disagreements, which was why she had never been able to hit Hanabi. But she remembered her team's words: That working hard and never giving up without complaining was best, that girls were supposed to help each other, that one should always spar a friend with an eye for keeping them from dying out on the field.

Hanabi's face was twisted in a snarl as she got into her stance, but she was also not watching Hinata's movements - she was leaving herself wide open.

Hinata's determination formed. She was going to try to help Hanabi become a better Jyuuken user by showing her what she was doing wrong. This shouldn't be impossible - in theory, she noted with nerves.

Their father shouted, "Begin!" and Hanabi lashed out fast - but with chakra channeled in her limbs, Hinata was faster. She caught Hanabi's block, and as Hanabi paused in surprise, Hinata attacked her vulnerable bottom half. Hanabi's legs went out from under with a yelp, and Hinata paused with a hand over Hanabi's heart.

They did not use actual chakra in the clan spars, but faux tenketsu hits were acknowledged.

"Killing blow," she said, her voice trembling. "I win this round. You were so busy snarling at me, you left yourself vulnerable. And you are not as fast as you think you are."

Hinata stepped back, as Hanabi lay there shaking with silent rage. Their father looked thoughtful, impressed - by Hinata, not Hanabi. The rest of the clan had gone silent in surprise.

"I have been training," Hinata repeated quietly, bowing her head once.

Hanabi shot to her feet. "I should have won! It should have been _me_!" she fumed, shrieking.

"Hanabi!" their father thundered from his straight-backed place at the front of the room. "Silence yourself!"

"NO! Hinata is weak, she could not have beaten me!" And Hanabi stormed off the mat and out of the room.

"Hanabi!" Hinata called after her, distraught, but Hanabi did not come back. Hinata feared she had just made an enemy of her sister, and this caused her more sorrow than fear.

"At least Hinata never made a fuss like that," she heard one clan elder mutter to the other. The tone of the room had started to change.

"Hinata. You seem to have improved," said Hiashi, and Hinata began to smile. Then: "Face Neji."

Hinata went silent with fearful horror. Neji was a genius, the best of the clan. She'd never lasted more than approximately fifteen seconds against him. He was infamous for learning high level techniques no one had ever formally taught him, and for being an expert at reading people and fighters.

He was confident, not arrogant - there was a difference.

Neji walked over to face her on the mat. "You cannot win, Hinata-sama," he intoned solemnly. "You may think you have changed, but you haven't. People don't change. And I will prove it to you." He got into a stance.

Hinata felt her courage waver. How could she possibly defeat Neji? But then she thought of Ino and Tenten - working themselves to the point of absolute exhaustion. Would they have given up in this situation? No! And they saw her as worthy, so neither would she!

Recharged, she got into a Jyuuken stance. She saw momentary surprise flit over Neji's features at the change in her expression.

Hinata went in first, and she was firm, aggressive, but not stupid. Neji backed up and backed up, she thought she was winning - then suddenly, when she was deep inside his territory, he lashed through all her defenses and knocked her down with a single blow.

"I win," he said quietly. "Do you see? No change." And he walked away. Hinata lay there on the mat in his wake, defeated. She stayed like that until the clan had filtered out and her father walked up to her. Slowly, with effort, she sat up.

"You have improved," said her father, but she could see the disappointment in his face and hear it in his voice. It was horrible. "You lasted longer than you ever have against him. How have you improved so quickly?"

Hinata looked up, and stood. "I'm doing private tutoring with Yuuhi Kurenai and two other girls - one of them a Yamanaka. She is going to teach me how to combine Hyuuga techniques with genjutsu. And I know the Byakugan can see through genjutsu!" she added quickly, when her father's eyes widened in alarm. "But most others' eyes cannot, and Yuuhi-san, who is solely responsible for my improvement, has pointed out that with genjutsu the victim could not see the Hyuuga attacking, making our techniques even deadlier. I - I thought this was a good argument." She bowed her head, wincing and waiting.

"... Very well," said her father, surprising her. "We will see how you do. Clearly, Hanabi is no longer a challenge for you, but Neji seems to be. I will watch this carefully."

Hinata suddenly looked up, an idea popping into her head. A challenge for her. "Father, may I leave?" she said suddenly, excited. "I must ask Neji-nii-san something!"

"Go ahead," said her father, and he looked after her in bemusement as she hurried away. It was the most spirited he had seen her in a long time.

"Neji-nii-san!" she called, seeing him as he traveled back to his quarters. He was alone. She hurried up to him and said breathlessly, "Please continue to spar with me!"

Neji raised an eyebrow. "You wish to be defeated again?"

"I am training. Taking scrolls from the Hyuuga main library, starting basic and then getting bigger. I wish for you to spar with me regularly so I can improve my Hyuuga clan arts. There are several things in it for you. First, you will learn legally and by proxy any high level art I take from the main library." Here, Neji's eyes sharpened. "Second, you will be doing your duty, which will look good and win you favor with my father. Third, if I do not improve, you will get to say I told you so. But if I _do_ improve… you will be forced to rethink your 'everyone is fated, no one ever changes' philosophy in several ways."

It was a bold challenge, unusual coming from Hinata. Perhaps that was why Neji said curiously at last, "Alright. I accept." He lifted his chin and added frostily, "Prepare yourself. I will show you no mercy."

"I know," said Hinata, nodding her head. "That is why I asked you. Thank you." And she walked away to go visit the Hyuuga main library and take out the correct scrolls. This was her, mastering the Hyuuga arts from the ground up.

So she had gained allies in Neji and her father, but lost one in her sister - the clan heiress.

* * *

Author's Notes: Academy relationships weren't heavily featured in this chapter, but I will be featuring them more in the following chapters. I just had to set some things up. From now on, I'm planning on each chapter being cut into three sections - "Academy Relationships," "Training," and "At Home/Personal Struggles."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Sakura walked up to Hinata, Ino, and Tenten one morning at the Academy before class started.

"I know you guys don't like me," she said, determined. "But I came for two reasons. First, to apologize to you, Hinata. What I did to you unintentionally that day was very cruel, and I've been feeling shame about it ever since."

"... It's alright," said Hinata at last, reserved. "You forced me to face up to reality. Unintentionally, as you said."

"... Hinata. I am not going to give up on Sasuke!" said Sakura fiercely, surprising Hinata. "And I don't pretend to understand the appeal, but if you really want to follow Naruto… you should not give up!"

Hinata sat there, torn. She knew Sakura meant well. It was the kind of advice Sakura herself would have wanted if she felt down. But…

"Ino," Sakura said, "can I talk to you alone for a minute?" Her voice was hushed and she winced. "That's… that's the other thing I came for."

Ino observed her coolly for a moment. "Fine," she said at last. She stood, and followed Sakura out of the classroom into the corridor.

"What do you think of Sakura's advice?" Tenten asked Hinata in their wake.

"I think… I think that I don't know if that's healthy," Hinata admitted. "Constantly following someone who cares nothing for you -"

"Hinata." Hinata looked around, and gasped. Naruto was standing there. He shuffled on his feet, looking nervous. "Can I, uh - can I talk to you for a minute? In the back of the classroom?"

"... Y-yes," said Hinata nervously, and she followed him away.

Tenten sat there, both of her friends gone, looking after them curiously.

"Hey, Tenten - what's been up with you lately?" She looked around. One of her old guy friends was sitting in front of her, turned around, grinning. The other guys looked curious.

"Oh, just… friend drama. Boy trouble. You know." Tenten smiled, chin in her hand.

"You didn't used to care about stuff like that," said the boy, frowning. "Why the sudden change?"

"Well… it's not that I never cared, it's just… I never had someone to share all that stuff with before," Tenten argued, frowning. "Friend drama and fad diets, guys and girly hobbies - like my herbs, or my fortune telling."

"Girl stuff," said the guy, making a face. He laughed.

But Tenten thought those were serious things. "Yeah," she said, fading, troubled. "Girl stuff."

She realized, unexpectedly, that she may have more in common with Hinata and Ino than she did with the boys. And she wasn't sure what to think about that. It didn't fit in with her self image at all.

Because she knew, looking at their grinning, disbelieving, unworried faces right now, that they just wouldn't get it if she tried to talk about important things like that with them. Little boys, they didn't care.

And she wanted more.

* * *

Sakura whirled to face Ino out in the corridor. "What's gotten into you?" she demanded, almost angry.

"What?" said Ino, caught off guard.

"You've given up on Sasuke, you've fallen in popularity, and it's like you don't even care!" said Sakura, impassioned.

"It's just - it's a weird time for me, okay?" said Ino, uncomfortable. She realized she'd fallen in popularity, and it made her conflicted and uneasy.

"... Alright. But you should know," said Sakura seriously. "You should know how it looks, hanging around with freaks like Hinata and Tenten. I'd never say it to their faces, because they seem nice, but - well, they're not exactly popular. You know?"

Rage suddenly filled Ino. "They may be _freaks_ ," she spat, "and they may be unpopular, and boyish, and shy, and awkward - but they're damn better friends than you ever were!"

Sakura looked like someone had slapped her, not just because of the words, but because of the way they had been snarled. Ino stomped, flat-footed, back into the classroom.

* * *

"Uh, Hinata," said Naruto uneasily, "someone - someone told me you liked me." Hinata looked down, humiliated and pained. "And I - I've been avoiding the issue because I don't know what to do. I grew up an orphan and, well, no one's ever really liked me before. So I don't know what to do in this situation."

Hinata looked up. She felt hope slowly begin to leak into her heart.

"But I - I just wanted to say - I think you're a great person Hinata, though kind of weird and quiet I guess. But still a great person. But… you know… I like Sakura," he finished awkwardly. "And she likes Sasuke. It's complicated. But…

"You know, I just wanted you to know that. That I wasn't just blowing you off. I hate it when people do that to me. I acknowledge you as a person, Hinata, just… not like that."

It was disappointing, but not as much as it might have been a few weeks ago.

"... Thank you, Naruto. Hopefully I will find someone who doesn't mind that I am, as you say, 'weird and quiet.' Or who doesn't see me like that at all.

"And I… I acknowledge you as a worthwhile person as well."

Naruto's eyes grew huge, and then he gave a great big smile. "Thanks, Hinata!"

Hinata watched him hurry away and pondered missed opportunities.

* * *

Ino, Hinata, and Tenten all met back up in the classroom, each a little downcast.

"I don't have anything in common with my old friends," Tenten shared.

"Naruto doesn't like me," Hinata offered.

"Sakura's still a royal bitch," said Ino, like it left a bad taste in her mouth. "Did I really used to be like that? All insulting and obsessed with popularity?"

"Yes," Tenten offered, and smirked when Ino offered her a half-hearted glare.

"You weren't supposed to agree with me," Ino sighed.

"I, um… I think it's better that we be honest with you, Ino," said Hinata, faintly amused.

"True," Ino admitted, smiling. "So…" She straightened and her eyes lit up; she began preening herself. "I went shopping the other day," she dished, bright and bubbly, "and I got this brand new dress, and Tenten's stopped listening, and -"

"Hey!" said Tenten, as Hinata, who had been listening politely, began laughing.

Ino cackled with mischievous laughter.

"I - I listen very well," Tenten protested.

"Sure you do," said Hinata innocently. "What? I was agreeing with you -!" she began, laughing, as Tenten made to pretend-attack her. Ino watched them in amusement, head in her hand.

Suddenly, they heard giggles behind them. They frowned and looked around.

Ino's posse of old, popular friends were standing there. "Ino," said the girl who'd taken over position of leader, grinning, "is it true? I heard you hadn't bathed in three whole days!" More giggles.

Ino scowled. They'd heard no such thing, but now everyone else in the class certainly had. "Fuck off," she said flatly, to more giggles.

"You know," said Tenten thoughtfully, "I'm no fashion plate, but even I can tell that unclean, Ino's still way prettier than any of you."

The giggling stopped.

"Yes, and more talented as well," said Hinata, eyes wide and innocent, mock sympathetic. "How hard that must be, constantly being compared to a girl who has rejected you who is much better than you without trying. In fact, I heard a rumor - that _that's_ why you've been spreading unsavory rumors in the first place."

Ino swelled up to her former heights, smirking. "Dirty or not," she said smugly, grinning playfully, eyes bright, "I still look damn good. Even girls who aren't interested in fashion can tell."

The tables had turned. "Fuck you, Yamanaka," the lead girl snapped, and they all flounced off, scowling.

The rest of the class went back to what they were doing. But they'd gotten the message - even when not at the top of the social echelon, Yamanaka Ino was still not to be fucked with. And neither were her friends.

The cut between Ino and her former friends was complete… but so was the cut between Tenten and hers. They'd watched Tenten get catty in front of a bunch of girl drama, and had assumed (somewhat wrongly) that she had completely changed.

The deal was sealed. Their old lives gone, their friendships with each other solidified, their determination to train and be the best was now free to show up in their classroom.

* * *

"Your first task in learning genjutsu," said Kurenai in the training field, "is to learn how to break out of other people's genjutsu. Now, Hinata, no Byakugan. I know that can be used to see through genjutsu, but you need to learn how to sense an illusion even when your Byakugan is not active." She looked at Hinata seriously.

Hinata nodded firmly. "Yes, Sensei."

"Okay. So. All illusions have flaws. They can be little ones, they can be big ones, depending on the skill of the user, but no genjutsu user's imagination is perfect. What is Ninja Rule # 39?"

"Always observe your surrounding environment," they parroted back to her.

"Very good. So first step, you have to look for details in your surrounding environment that tell the lie. This means keeping up a high level of observational skills pretty much all the time. Once you've noticed you're inside a genjutsu, you disrupt your chakra flow and the illusion goes away - unless you're in multiple layers, in which case you fall into the next layer. In that case, you must keep breaking out of illusions until you find reality.

"So. We are going to practice picking out genjutsu and breaking ourselves out of them. Your opponent will be me, though I will go easy on you at first."

They tensed. "When do we start?" asked Ino.

Kurenai smiled. "I'll give you a hint," she said. "You're already in one. Look around… What gives it away?"

They looked around. "The sun is in the wrong place," said Tenten suddenly, "and that bend in the creek is supposed to go west, not east."

They made hand seals and disrupted their chakra, saw a hazy chakra mirage filter before their vision - and then the sun and the creek righted themselves.

"Very good," said Kurenai. "We will practice this relentlessly until you can break out of even advanced illusions. As a genjutsu master, falling for someone else's genjutsu is the height of shame. And imagine you're fighting another genjutsu user? You must keep track not only of your own illusions, but of the ones they're sending back at you."

The girls looked convinced. "Alright," said Kurenai. "Let's get started."

They broke out of increasingly more difficult illusions. Some of them were ordinary; others took the form of psychic attacks, horrifying and gruesome.

"You must keep calm!" Kurenai commanded. "Genjutsu requires not only observational skills, but calm! Look to see in a matter of seconds if the horrifying thing is real!"

This took a great deal of practice.

At the same time, they were beginning training in their individual skills.

Tenten's first goal was to master each weapon individually. This took up a good chunk of the two and a half years. She practiced, not only after school with Kurenai, Ino, and Hinata, but after hours, alone in training fields, going through katas with different weapons, sweating and panting. She worked relentlessly, mastering movements and katas, fighting with her fellow women using various weapons - sometimes with Kurenai clones, when she wanted to really make an impact. Kurenai even set her up with sparring sessions with a series of masters in each of her close distance weapons, and introduced her to a range where she could practice throwing long distance weapons at both moving and unmoving targets.

Ino's first goal was to master both mind control and body control from a straight line, close distance, across from someone. She, too, practiced on her fellows and on Kurenai clones. The goal was to throw your chakra out in a rope around the opponent, and travel down the invisible rope of chakra to them - either as a mind or as a physical body. As a physical body, she could then flick her fingers and have her victims do anything she wanted. As a mind, her real body slumped over and she was now in the victim's mind, moving their body and reading their panicked, trapped thoughts. There was nothing like making a ninja realize they were no longer in control of their own body for freaking them out.

Hinata's first goal was to have a good basic mastery of the heart of Jyuuken. She used her Byakugan constantly, in order to better its strength and distance, and she sparred every day not only with her fellow girls but also with Neji. She made a lot of mistakes at first, but slowly, through relentless, sweaty sparring, she improved, becoming faster, softer, and more graceful. Her fellow women pointed out to her that she seemed to be improving, and slowly her self confidence grew as well.

They were on their way.

* * *

Ino approached Kurenai one afternoon after a training session. "Sensei…" she said uncomfortably, "can I talk to you for a minute? Alone?"

Tenten and Hinata looked after them curiously, but left the field. Kurenai nodded after them. "Thank you, girls." She turned to Ino. "What is it?"

"Sensei, I'm asking you this because you're not like my parents or my friends. You're the person in my life that I trust the most to be completely objective. You're not like Iruka-sensei or Suzume-sensei. You don't mince words."

"Okay," said Kurenai, frowning.

"Am I fat? Do I need to be losing weight? In order to look good, I mean," Ino added quickly.

Kurenai was silent for a while, Ino standing there nervously in front of her. "Do you want me to share with you the secret of having a truly attractive body, Ino?" she asked at last, almost conspiratorially.

Ino nodded eagerly, leaning forward.

"Exercise regularly, eat healthy things, and take good care of yourself. It's that simple." Ino paused, frowning skeptically. "Ino, do I look stick skinny?" Kurenai added pointedly.

"... No," Ino realized. "You're even curvier than me!"

"And would anyone accuse me of being unattractive?" Kurenai asked ironically. Ironically, because the idea was absurd. Ino had seen the looks people gave their Sensei when she passed in the streets.

"No, Sensei."

"But that's because I refuse to bow down to standards," said Kurenai stoutly. "I'm confident in myself, I believe in myself, and I take good care of myself. _That's_ what's attractive.

"You're not fat, to answer your question, Ino. You don't need to be dieting at all. But that's not the right way to go about being attractive anyway. You don't get a good body by stopping all eating altogether. You get a good body by being confident and healthy - dealing with what you've been blessed with.

"I think you may have to face up to the fact that you have some sensitive body image issues, and they may be lying to you about both the way that you really look, and the way you're _supposed_ to look. Do you understand?"

She peered, concerned and all knowing, into Ino's face.

"... Yes, Sensei," said Ino at last, her mind spinning with new thoughts.

"Do you know what you could use as a ninja, Ino? You could actually stand to bulk up and gain some muscle - which is different from gaining body fat. Just a piece of advice." Kurenai patted Ino on the shoulder, and walked off the field leaving her student with a lot to think about.

Ino had been left torn. Because popularity was important to her, and popularity had always taught her that dieting was the most important thing for a good body. But not only had popularity led her toward the wrong people… what it had told her about looking good did not seem to be true either.

The cult of popularity may have lied to her.

* * *

Tenten had decided to apply for a clan name. This was the first step in being able to live on her own, away from the orphanage.

She walked into the vast, gleaming Konoha home offices one day, and walked up to the front desk. "Clan name?" said the bureaucrat there, bored.

"I don't have a clan name," said Tenten in a tiny, young, determined voice. "I'm a civilian orphan."

The bureaucrat paused - looked over the desk and sneered at her. "And what are you doing here?" he asked with contempt.

"I want to apply for a clan name."

"Are you even out of the Academy yet?" he asked skeptically.

"According to what I've read, that shouldn't matter." Tenten held up the booklet of information their office printed and circulated, her expression fierce.

"Look, little girl. Come back in a few years and -"

"I have concrete abilities!" Tenten shouted. "I have a private tutor who's teaching me weapons and genjutsu!" The bureaucrat stared at her. "And I'm not leaving until I get a meeting with somebody to talk about gaining a clan name."

And, taking a page out of Ino and Hinata's book - Ino was stubborn, Hinata passive aggressive - she sat down on the floor in front of the desk, crossed her arms pouting, and waited. For half an hour. Then an hour. She was ignored first, but soon passing people began whispering and staring.

First the bureaucrat asked her to leave. She said nothing. Then a security Chuunin walked up to her and commanded that she leave.

Tenten glared up at him with narrowed brown eyes. "What are you going to do, attack a little civilian girl for sitting on the floor?" she sniped. "Konoha's way too peaceful to go for that."

At last, the Chuunin shrugged helplessly at the furious bureaucrat, and left.

So the bureaucrat sighed, looked at his calendar, and said, "Is next Thursday at two a good time to meet with one of our officials?"

Tenten jumped to her feet and cheered. "Yes! Yes!" she shouted.

So she went eagerly again next Thursday, her argument and confirmation paperwork from Kurenai ready. The official wasn't there yet. She sat in his office, and she waited.

About half an hour later, she realized something important: They were ignoring her again. He wasn't going to come.

Tenten considered crying, and indeed scrubbed a few tears furiously from her eyes. But then she began thinking: Where would he be at this time? It was past lunch… So if he wasn't here, he must be in one of the big board meetings on the other side of the building.

She snuck out of his office - behind and past the bureaucrat's front desk (she stuck her tongue out at his back silently on the way by) - and down the hall into the boardroom offices. That room didn't have anyone - that room didn't have anyone - ah, there!

She slammed open the door and shouted, "I have special ninja abilities and I demand a clan name!" They all looked around to stare at the impertinent, furious little girl who'd just burst through the door. "Someone scheduled an official meeting with me during this time to talk about gaining a clan name. I have paperwork here from a Chuunin certifying that I have special abilities. Is this home office policy?" she asked sarcastically.

There was an embarrassed silence. At last, one older man stood, and everyone else looked terrified. "No, it is not," he rumbled. "I head home offices. I will personally assist you. Come with me."

Everyone else stared pointedly at their toes as he and Tenten left the room.

They walked down the hall, past the bureaucrat - horror passed across his face and his mouth opened and closed like a fish after them; Tenten snickered - and into a larger, grander office. "Please sit down," said the head of home offices, sitting down behind his desk.

Tenten sat across from him and offered him her paperwork.

"Hmm. Yes, that all seems to be in order," he said. "Except for one thing." He looked up as Tenten's stomach gave a jolt. Had she forgotten something? "An established Konoha ninja clan must 'sponsor' you until you are making your own money as a ninja. They will vouch for you and pay for your independent housing until you are made a Genin."

"Sponsor, huh?" said Tenten thoughtfully.

"Here." The man handed her a business card with a personal phone number on it. "In the meantime, I will draw up the paperwork. When you find someone to sponsor you, this is my personal number. Call that, and I will set up a time to meet with you and complete your ninja clan integration. At that time, you will be able to choose your own surname."

* * *

Hinata had grown a strange friendship with Neji over the course of their spars together. He was extremely reticent, but they'd grown an unexpected respect for one another as teacher and student. In a guard formation, Neji would walk her back to her set of rooms each night.

"It is only my duty as teacher and branch member," he said simply, looking straight ahead, when she thanked him for doing this.

He was doing this one night, when he paused and stared expressionlessly ahead of himself. Hinata looked around - and gasped.

Her things were out of her room, spread all over the hallway in front. A branch servant was bringing more of her items outside.

"What is going on?!" she called, hurrying over, horrified.

"My apologies, Hinata-sama." The branch member bowed. "Hanabi-sama requested you be moved to a smaller set of rooms. She wants these rooms for herself. And as clan heiress -"

"She is allowed them." Hinata had suddenly looked troubled, but hard to read.

"Is Hanabi-sama doing things like this to you a lot?" Neji asked, his brow wrinkling.

"She keeps making political moves against me… Setting me up against older, stronger people during the weekly spars so I'll be humiliated. Requesting I be served at dinner foods I do not like. Now this."

"She won't face you since that day," Neji observed. "She's fearful of you - jealous. She doesn't want her place usurped."

"All I want is to be her sister," Hinata whispered.

Neji pulled Hinata aside. "Look," he said, "it's not my place to say, but Hanabi-sama seems to be grouping political allies against you. If you're not careful, you could wind up with a cursed seal.

"Hinata-sama, if Hanabi-sama is setting political moves against you… you must learn to play politics again back to her. That is the only true way to gain admiration from your father. If you show your strength, he will intervene.

"That is how Hiashi-sama is."

"... But how?" Hinata whispered hopelessly. "I know nothing about politics. And Hanabi is the clan heiress."

"Hinata-sama," said Neji, "you have one advantage over Hanabi-sama. You are good at convincing people and getting people to like you, are you not? You are humble and graceful, usually calm. A diplomat.

"That is the key to defeating your sister."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Iruka watched in surprise as Ino, Hinata, and Tenten became closer, and as they mastered technique after technique at the Academy. It seemed to have happened in the short time he was away, and now he was unsure what to make of it.

They worked hard, he'd give them that. Their determination to win in spars and to dominate in tests had no boundaries. But they also showed a natural affinity for ninja techniques that was very impressive.

Hinata was knocking down anyone who faced her in taijutsu spars. She had become a bit of a legend among her class.

Tenten got 100 out of 100 on every kunai and shuriken throwing test he gave her. She was an expert with ninja equipment and could craft the most vicious and expert of traps.

Ino specialized in ninjutsu trickery. She would transform into random guest speakers who had only been in class for an hour, have her clone come up and make a clone instead of herself, replace with items outside and then replace herself back inside the classroom again.

And trying to fool any of them with a genjutsu, even a complex one, had become damn near impossible.

Their stamina was excellent, their control was perfect, their stances were flawless, their hand signs were quick and expert. And they seemed to be best friends with one another. Why the sudden change?

Iruka watched them dominate another test and saw Sasuke watching them out of the corner of his eye. Sasuke knew as well as Iruka did - they were threatening his place at the top of the pyramid.

* * *

In their private after-school training, Ino, Hinata, and Tenten had begun learning actual genjutsu. They were quite excited upon first hearing they were starting this, beaming and jumping from foot to foot.

"Your first task," said Kurenai, smiling, "is to master crafting an expert sensory trick genjutsu without moving around or fighting in any other way. That is what we will focus on for now."

So they practiced on each other. One person would feed a genjutsu, the other person would have to find the flaws in the genjutsu and break it. In this way, they slowly improved.

Kurenai soon began asking them to send a genjutsu to more than one person, and to fight using genjutsu with each other, layers upon layers.

The first step was quite difficult - crafting a believable genjutsu involved fine chakra control, vast intelligence, and enormous imagination. They had to create a whole new sensory world for the victim, one of false sights, sounds, even smells. Some genjutsu were vicious, others less so. The second step was hard for a different reason - it required a lot of stamina. This was a good chakra growing exercise for them, though they did pass out a couple of times.

Meanwhile, they were still learning personal skills.

Hinata mastered two things in this time. The first, and most useful, was Divine Sixty-Four Strikes, the pinnacle of Jyuuken achievement. Neji helped her master this, and in the process he got to learn it as well, so it was a win-win. Hinata's father would watch from a distance, conflicted, as they practiced faux Divine Sixty-Four Strikes on each other in the clan compound.

Hinata then showed her friends the same series of fast movements, shutting down all sixty-four tenketsu points in a matter of seconds.

Unbeknownst to Hinata, it was around this time - especially with all the political intrigue going on - that Neji realized Hinata _had_ in fact changed. Or else that he had misjudged her wildly. This brought a lot of things into question for him.

The other thing Hinata learned at this time was chakra emanation - issuing chakra from every tenketsu point on her body at once. This, too, required building up enormous chakra strength and stamina. Hinata would shake, draining herself, glowing blue as she emanated chakra. She practiced this exercise until she could do it easily, without thinking.

That was the first step to some of the Hyuuga's highest arts.

Tenten, meanwhile, began mastering fighting with multiple weapons at once. She would practice katas with two or three different weapons at the same time, then try the same techniques in spars with clones. Having mastered each weapon individually, her next job was to multitask - to be able to juggle several weapons in a single battle. She also began practicing unsealing multiple weapons from storage scrolls in one vast, single movement.

Ino, too, was hard at work. Now that she had both mind and body control mastered, she began expanding her range, doing her Yamanaka techniques from greater distances and multiple angles - not just from one close, straight line.

This was when their battle techniques started becoming truly deadly.

* * *

Ino decided to try an experiment.

She did what Kurenai and her friends suggested. She experimented with eating a lot of healthy food, and working out on top of that. She tried thinking more positive thoughts about herself and her own body.

She was surprised by how much better she felt. Even her energy levels and general mood improved.

Ino came to three realizations:

First, that the cult of popularity was sometimes wrong. Dieting and making as many distant friends as possible was not the best route at all. She felt much more secure in a small group of close friends, and when she focused on personal health instead of dieting.

Second, that she was not fat. When she started noticing the good things about her body, she realized there was a lot to notice. Maybe Tenten and Kurenai hadn't been lying to her when they'd told her that her body was fine the way it was.

Third, that she should be kinder toward people with body image issues. She felt more sympathy for people who struggled with their body than she used to. She knew how that felt, because she'd been that way herself. She also found that vain, silly, shallow fangirls began to deeply annoy her - deeply, because she'd been one herself and now irrationally resented them. She even took to stoutly defending less popular people from such girls.

Talking to her parents about it would have felt awkward - though they had to have noticed the change in her - but she did share her new realizations with Kurenai and her friends.

"I'm proud of you, Ino," said Hinata kindly. "I knew you had it in you all along."

Ino smiled. "Thanks," she said wryly. "I can't believe I spent such a long time worrying what everyone else thought of me."

"It always surprised me how much you cared what other people think, Ino. I mean, you're the kind of person where, I'd have thought it was beneath you," Tenten admitted.

Ino's eyes widened as something clicked into place in her mind.

"It is," she said, straightening, proud, preening herself. "You're right, Tenten. Caring what other people think is _totally_ beneath me." Then she went back to her bubbly, cheerful, flirtatious, arrogant self, strutting around the training field.

"I think we've created a monster," said Tenten dryly, watching her, and Kurenai and Hinata chuckled.

"Perhaps," said Kurenai quietly, "that is not such a bad thing."

In the aftermath, Ino realized she had formed a new goal. Everything had been put into perspective for her, and now she realized what was really important:

She had proven herself to her friends and classmates. She loved herself as well. But now she wanted to prove herself to her father as a strong and worthy Yamanaka.

* * *

Tenten asked Kurenai, Ino, and Hinata for help with the 'sponsoring.' "I need someone to sponsor me as a ninja clan originator until I'm making my own money," she admitted, wincing. "It's the only way I can escape the orphanage."

She'd expected reluctance. What she got instead was the firmest expression of friendship she could think of.

"I'll help!" said Hinata immediately, forgetting all her own problems.

"So will I!" said Ino with equal eagerness.

"I have an idea," said Kurenai with unusual warmth. "All three of us are from ninja clans. Why don't we all go back to our clan heads - or our fathers - and ask them?"

It was more than Tenten could have dreamed of.

They came back the next day, and Ino and Kurenai both confirmed they could help Tenten. "My father gives me a good deal of leeway these days," said Kurenai.

"And my parents said they'd be happy to help," said Ino, smiling.

"My father agreed to give you the full backing of the Hyuuga clan," Hinata offered, and there was a stunned silence. The Hyuuga was one of the biggest names in Konoha. Yet Hinata looked uneasy. "But he has one condition," she said, wincing. "He wants to meet with you and have you convince him first."

It would have terrified Hinata, but Tenten grew determined. "Alright," she said firmly. "I'll do it." Tenten was confident in her own passion and ability to form a ninja clan.

So she entered the Hyuuga compound with Hinata, past the branch member guards. They padded down hallways, and then knocked on a sliding shoji screen door. "Enter." The door was slid aside, and Hinata and Tenten knelt there before Hiashi.

"Father," said Hinata formally, her face expressionless and her eyes demurely lowered. "This is the friend I was telling you about. Tenten."

Hyuuga Hiashi fixed Tenten with a cold piercing stare, and even Tenten felt her courage waver once a little, very briefly. Then she held herself up. She had to do this! If she had the backing and money support of the Hyuuga, no one could turn her down!

This was her golden opportunity.

"Tenten. A name that means heaven," said Hiashi after a moment. "What do want your surname to be?"

"Hanakiri," said Tenten. She'd spent years deciding on it.

"Flower mist heaven. How poetic," said Hiashi dryly, and Tenten blushed. She'd come up with the name as a child.

"Please, sir!" she said, leaning forward, impassioned. "I am working very hard toward becoming a powerful ninja in my own right! I can stand toe to toe in a genjutsu fight with your own daughter, and I have mastered ten different kinds of weapons in different ways - all at the same time." Hiashi's eyebrows rose, impressed. "I work hours upon hours after school in the training fields, and I plan on doing great things as a ninja! Your sponsorship will not go to waste!"

She bowed low, and waited.

"That is indeed a powerful argument," said Hiashi. "Let me ask you this, Tenten. Why do you want to be a part of a ninja clan? You do not have a family, which is the usual reason."

His tone remained cold and dignified. He did not seem to care about the emotional import of what he was saying. Tenten saw Hinata's eyes widen a little, but Tenten was not offended - never one to mince words herself, she understood the question.

"Sir," she said, fiery and firm, straightening. "I have spent my entire life nameless, just another number inside just another rundown orphanage. I was never respected by anyone. I want a ninja clan name for the same reason I wanted to become a ninja - I wish to change that fate. I wish for a name, I wish for an identity, I wish for respect. I wish for independence. I don't want to be just another civilian orphan all my life. I want to be a proud and true ninja!"

Hiashi paused, and then offered a small smile. "Very well," he said. "You have your sponsorship from the Hyuuga clan. I will draw up the paperwork now and hand it to you."

Tenten wished to jump into the air and cheer in elated relief, but thought that might look badly to Hyuuga Hiashi. "Thank you, sir," she sighed in relief, bowing forward low.

She hadn't even made an ass of herself in manners, something she'd been genuinely worried about. Ino and Hinata had to give her a great deal of etiquette training before this meeting.

As they were walking out, Hinata told her, "I'm impressed, Tenten. My father never smiles about anything." Tenten smiled proudly herself.

So Tenten made the call, and took the paperwork from all three clans - Yuuhi, Yamanaka, and Hyuuga - to the head of home offices. He looked over the notes, and his eyebrows almost disappeared into his hairline. "Well," he said. "How can I say no to that?"

And so Tenten got to write her new name proudly in the paperwork line: Hanakiri Tenten. It was one of the happiest moments of her life.

"I can live on my own now?" she confirmed, looking up.

The head of home offices smiled. "That you can."

* * *

Hinata had significantly grown in quiet confidence. This was the only reason why she was able to do what she did.

She arranged a series of private meetings with various clan elders and high class clan members - people she knew from carefully casual, kind conversations had not yet been swayed over to Hanabi's side. She used her weight as Hiashi's daughter to arrange to have the meetings.

There, in back rooms and personal quarters of the Hyuuga compound, she appealed to people's spirit. Not their pity, but their sense of love and care for others. She knew just what mattered to each person - she had gotten to know them all carefully - and she made a series of believable promises as to what she would do for people if they supported her. Children, nieces, and nephews elected to future prestigious positions within the clan, favors done and rules secured, more servants, larger rooms, that kind of thing.

Neji was even able to sway most of the branch members over to her side after a conversation they had one day during a break from training.

"Hinata-sama… what did I miss? You appear to have changed," Neji admitted, looking deeply confused. "That should not be possible."

Hinata thought carefully about her answer. At last, she decided to take a risk.

"Neji, I know why you think that. Your father died as a branch member because of a simple accident of being the second twin at birth." Neji froze, his face darkening as he stared straight ahead of himself, not looking at her. "And you think, because of that caged bird seal on your forehead, the same 'fate' will inevitably happen to you. This causes you great pain."

Neji turned to glare at her. "I _think_? Hinata-sama, it is fact. What on earth do you mean?"

Hinata waved him forward and whispered in his ear: "As a potential clan heiress, I think the branch family practices are outdated. They are a sign of weakness that other clans clearly do not need. They make the Hyuuga clan look weak. Don't you think the same, too?"

Neji moved his head back and stared at her. "You'd better be serious," he said at last.

Hinata smiled. "I am many things," she said. "But am I a teaser or a liar?"

No hint of her intentions ever reached the main family, but subtle signs of support for Hinata began to show from branch members of various ages all over the clan compound.

Hanabi never suspected her - nobody did. Hyuuga Hinata had a widespread reputation within the clan for being kind of a pushover.

But soon, Hinata began subtly, kindly, and gracefully pulling strings, ever the diplomat in asking for return favors, and signs began to show. Hinata got a larger set of rooms, even than Hanabi, from a clan elder. The branch family members began to serve her favorite meals at dinner instead of her sister's. Older clan members began deferring to Hinata in spars. Clan elders began to show favoritism toward Hinata.

And as Hinata never abused this authority - the way Hanabi might have - her popularity only grew. She thanked people, smiled at them, treated all favors with grace and gratefulness. This did not fall on deaf ears. More and more people began to sway over to her side. She now fought toe to toe with Neji in the weekly sparring sessions as well, and that was through her own merits. She impressed people.

For the first time in her life, Hyuuga Hinata began to impress people.

Finally, one day all the branch members simply put down their tools and stopped serving Hanabi. They refused to do anything for her. Hinata hid behind a wall and waited. This had been carefully planned as a display of power. When her sister began shouting, Hinata hurried out from behind the wall and ran over toward them.

Hanabi whirled out her hand to active a branch member's cursed seal - the man flinched in preparation - and then Hinata flew out her hand and shouted, "Stop!"

The pain never came. The branch man's eyes fluttered open.

Only another main family member could stop a cursed seal from being activated.

"Hanabi, these servants have a job I need them for," said Hinata calmly. "All branch members who work for me instead of you will be under my protection."

Hanabi whirled around, glaring at her. "What do you need them for?" she growled through gritted teeth, fists clenched.

"That is my business. I'm sure you can manage perfectly fine on your own. After all, I did for years," said Hinata smoothly.

And here, Hanabi was caught. If she said she really needed the servants, she would look even more inferior compared to Hinata.

Hinata walked away, calling, "Come with me." The branch servants followed gratefully and silently behind her toward her new, larger quarters.

"I can have you sealed!" Hanabi called after her, losing her temper. "I can have you sealed, sister!"

Hinata waited until they were out of earshot before murmuring, "Go alert the network." Almost all of the branch members were under her control and obedience, and they often sent messages down to the network to Hinata's allies with more political clout.

Hinata got a message from them a few hours later. Hanabi had petitioned to have her sealed in a private meeting, and more than half the clan elders had voted her down. More importantly, so did the clan head, Hinata's father.

Hanabi was falling steeply.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

"Hanakiri. Yamanaka. Hyuuga."

The three girls looked around, frowning, on the Academy schoolyard playground during lunch. Sasuke was standing there, looking dark and serious.

"Sasuke?" Ino frowned. "What's up?"

Sasuke got into a stance, his eyes hard. "I wish to test myself against you," he said simply.

"Eh?" Ino returned eloquently, raising an eyebrow.

"He means that we have been beating him in class," said Hinata matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, and he's butthurt!" Tenten grinned; she clearly found this idea highly amusing. Sasuke's eyes narrowed and a scowl took over his face, but all of a sudden he seemed a bit more pathetic.

Ino threw her head back and laughed, long and loud. "Sasuke feels like his manhood has been threatened?!"

"I wish to test myself against someone strong to see how far I have come!" Sasuke protested, blushing. Ino laughed even harder. All of a sudden, her former crush was on her level, and had none of the glamor of before.

"Ino-pig, stop laughing at Sasuke-kun!" said Sakura fiercely.

Ino stopped laughing. She wasn't sure which irritated her more - Sakura's fangirlish habits, or the fact that she called her former friend a "pig." Name connotations or not, there was no excuse for calling another girl a pig in body-positive Ino's book.

Perhaps this is why she snapped out with an instinctive: "At least he's paying attention to _me_!"

Ino was immediately appalled - she had sounded, for a moment, like her old, immature self - but Sakura was too busy getting angry to notice. She stormed over to Sasuke. "Sasuke-kun, forget about them," she said sweetly, tugging at his arm. "Why don't I treat you to lunch?"

Her simpering seemed to be going for the little-girl effect, as if she thought Sasuke had a thing for younger kids or something.

"I have no interest in you," Sasuke snapped, pulling away, making Sakura look rather hurt. "I wish to fight someone of my level!"

"Come on, Sakura-chan, forget about that asshole -!" Naruto called, and now he was coming over, too -

At last, Tenten got fed up. She threw a kunai - Sasuke dodged - it landed on the ground behind him - the seal trap tag worked and a scythe-like weapon suddenly swung toward Sasuke's feet. He jumped away - right into Ino's range.

"Body transfer complete," said Ino smugly, in a hand seal, as Sasuke's body literally froze up, and turned slowly around to face them.

Hinata sped at Sasuke, knocked him over in a faux Jyuuken strike, and put a cool, collected foot on his stomach. Sasuke was still frozen, the weapon looking deceptively harmless behind him. The entire playground was silent with terror. Ino and Tenten walked over beside Hinata.

" _That's_ how you compare to the three of us," Ino sneered.

"Get it?" said Tenten brightly.

Sasuke was released and he sat up immediately. Sakura and Naruto had watched in silent disbelief and horror.

The girls turned, and left the playground. The story spread around the Academy, until it was widely known that Hanakiri Tenten, Yamanaka Ino, and Hyuuga Hinata were some of the best up-and-comers the Academy had to offer.

* * *

Their training had progressed to the final stage - they learned how to integrate genjutsu in with their other skills, by tricking the enemy with a genjutsu and then really attacking them from another area.

Hinata made a genjutsu and then attacked from a hidden place with Jyuuken strikes. Tenten with weapons. Ino with mind and body control.

It took a lot of work to get down forming a genjutsu while moving around and attacking at the same time. The practice for this section was heavy. But the returns were definitely worth it. They either attacked each other, or Kurenai clones.

Meanwhile, Hinata mastered the Hyuuga high arts of One Body Blow and Kaiten. She became a master, not only at impenetrable dome shields, but at cutting through prisons and ties of all kinds and through incoming ninjutsu. Neji learned these same arts, something she knew he would always be grateful for.

Tenten mastered the weapons barrage ninjutsu from a sealing scroll, as well as - on her friends' and Kurenai's recommendation - the well timed use of explosive tags hidden on long distance throwing weapons toward people who were hard to reach physically.

Ino mastered multiple person mind and body control, from increasingly long distances and from any angle. She could now do what she had promised - force entire squadrons of soldiers to kill each other.

* * *

"Father." Ino came to stand before him, determined, one day at home. Her parents looked around in surprise. "I would like to fight you. I want to prove myself as a true Yamanaka. If I win… you have to give me my clan earring."

It was a ritual. Each Yamanaka got a single ear piercing and an earring showing that they were a true ninja and a Yamanaka.

"You know," said her father, puzzled and amused, "I was going to give it to you if you made Genin rank anyway."

"I no longer want to be a true Yamanaka by default," said Ino firmly. "I wish to become one by strength!"

Her father paused, and smiled.

"Very well," he said. "Let's go out back and have our spar, shall we?"

They faced each other out there in the back courtyard, every Yamanaka gathering around to watch. They stood, tensed, across from each other… Ino avoided looking into her father's eye and instead concentrated on the lower half of his body. If her father looked her in the eye, he could read her mind. He could sense all the minds in his area, too. But -

And here something within her clicked. But he could only sense the general area the minds were in.

Inoichi saw his daughter suddenly dart off to the side. He paused, made the hand seal, and dispelled the genjutsu, sighing in disappointment. "Ino, it is all too obvious you would not really make that move -" he began, and then paused as he felt his body freeze up.

All of a sudden the genjutsu was revealed, to gasps, and Ino was standing there, making a hand seal, smirking. She had not moved.

"Double layer genjutsu," said Ino. "I knew you wouldn't be able to sense the difference of a mind moving or not moving a few feet."

"I didn't know your range was this long," said Inoichi, frowning. "I purposefully moved into a range I thought you couldn't handle."

"I have improved," said Ino. Then she grinned. "Haven't you wondered," she asked, "why your Kage Bunshin haven't come out yet?"

Inoichi's eyes widened. The Kage Bunshin shuffled purposefully out of hiding as Ino flicked her fingers. She was controlling all of them at once.

"I searched with my body bind ninjutsu for every being with your chakra signature in the area," said Ino. "A true Yamanaka would try to win by trickery."

"As you have done." Inoichi smiled warmly. "You pass."

Ino released, and started cheering. She ran to engulf her father in a bear hug, and he laughed. "Very well," he said, as his wife watched on, smiling. "You get your earring."

And so, the following night, in a clan ceremony, Ino received her ear piercing. She smiled as she felt the new weight of the earring in her ear.

"I am proud of you, my daughter," said Inoichi, hand on her shoulder. It brought her a kind of satisfaction she didn't think popularity or acknowledgment from Sasuke would have.

* * *

Tenten's friends helped her move into a brand-new apartment.

"I can't believe I get to decide where everything goes!" she cried, stars in her eyes, zipping around the apartment. "Put that here! No here! No here!"

Her friends watched in exasperated amusement.

Tenten at last came back over to them. "Congratulations," said Kurenai warmly, "clan founder, Hanakiri Tenten."

Tenten blushed and beamed proudly. No more orphanage. No more matron.

The matron hadn't looked sad to see her go with her boxes. "Goodbye," Tenten had told the matron simply. She'd turned away, and hadn't looked back at the rundown old building as she left.

* * *

Hiashi at last commanded one day at the clan spars, "Hanabi. Hinata. You will face each other in battle."

And it all came to a head.

Hinata stood, and went calmly out onto the mat in her bare feet. Hanabi paused, staring at Hinata with resentment and - perhaps - fear, from her place sitting.

"Father, I am not feeling well," she announced.

"And will a ninja mission wait until you are feeling better, Hanabi? Enough of this," their father scolded her. "Face your sister on the mat."

Hanabi at last went reluctantly to face her sister, glaring at Hinata all the while. Their Byakugan activated and they got into stances.

"... Begin!"

Hanabi flew at Hinata, and for a beginner, she was good. It was obvious she had been practicing. Hinata backed up and backed up a few steps, letting her sister and everyone else think Hanabi was winning - then she pulled a Neji, and smashed with speed and power through Hanabi's guard, touching her heart in a faux tenketsu "death point."

Hanabi froze, her eyes wide.

Hinata winced in apology, though she wasn't sure if Hanabi had noticed. "You got arrogant and stopped paying attention to your guard," she observed. "Your defense could use some work."

They stepped back from one another, and Hanabi stood there, shell shocked.

"Hiashi-sama, if I may, this is ridiculous," one of Hinata's clan elder supporters spoke up. " _Neji_ can barely defeat Hinata, let alone Hanabi. And he is the eldest! Hinata carries herself with more professionalism; it is obvious _she_ should be clan heiress."

Hanabi looked around and gasped.

"Hiashi-sama, I would agree. If it were a choice between the two, I feel it would make more sense if Hinata-sama were to lead me," said Neji, carefully neutral. It was a bold thing to do, taking a side as a branch member. And then suddenly branch members all over the sparring room were agreeing with Neji's statements, as were several clan elders and higher-ups.

" _This_ is ridiculous!" said one of Hanabi's greatest defenders, horrified. "With all due respect, Hinata-sama is a radical, and Hanabi-sama has already been chosen as clan heiress!"

"So we Hyuuga are unable to adapt with the current times, is that it?" the original clan elder demanded. "You base your accusations off of wild theories and refuse to accept that Hinata-sama is the older, stronger, and more diplomatic of the two sisters. Having been trained at the Academy, she is also an expert in the feminine arts, and having grown up Hiashi-sama's daughter, she does of course have elegant formality in manners.

"It just makes more sense. She may be a late bloomer, but she has bloomed. She is capable of fighting where she wasn't before, which, if you might recall, is where we found fault with her in the first place."

Hanabi's face had slowly reddened in alarm. She made to say something, and then Hiashi barked, "Silence!"

Quiet fell in the Hyuuga clan sparring room.

"I have heard all arguments already," Hiashi sighed, sounding slightly exasperated, making Hinata think this had been brought up in private Hyuuga council meetings before. "And… I agree. It would make far more sense for Hinata to be clan heiress. Hanabi shall henceforth be relegated to second in command, and shall release all rooms she had under her title as clan heiress."

Hanabi looked totally floored. Hinata wanted to tell her it was alright - that she would never seal her sister, that her sister could have her old rooms - but Hanabi had already rushed, upset, from the room.

Hinata suspected that in this matter, her sister would never really forgive her. But it was better, she thought, for Hinata to be clan heiress and neither of them sealed, than it would have been for Hanabi to be clan heiress and the other one sealed.

Her resolve had not wavered. She would do away with this branch family business - once clan head. Neji and she exchanged a wary eye.

He knew as well as she did it would have to be done carefully.

"Father," she said, "may I make Neji my formal branch guard in command?"

"You may," said her father, nodding his head.

Hinata smiled. This, on top of everything else, gave Neji-nii-san a better set of rooms just conjoining her own.

* * *

Kurenai stood at attention in the Hokage's office.

"Yuuhi Kurenai," the little old Hokage rumbled. "You are hereby made a Jounin of Konoha."

Kurenai smiled proudly.

She walked outside and found Ino, Tenten, and Hinata standing there. They jumped up and down and started cheering in excitement.

"Yes, yes, I've been made a Jounin," said Kurenai patiently, cheerful. "Now shall we all go to our favorite seafood restaurant? I'll buy Ino and Hinata something sweet, and Tenten some dumplings -!" she offered.

The cheering got louder, and the mass of women flooded toward the seafood restaurant. Sarutobi Hiruzen, Third Hokage, watched from a high window.

They were, he thought, practically a team already.

* * *

Author's Notes: One more chapter and then we'll be done with book one.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

The Genin Exam was approaching.

One could feel stirrings of it in the air. All of a sudden the tests came more often and stricter, the grades became much higher-stakes, and an excitement and tension hung in the air. Ino, Tenten, and Hinata were not any more immune to all of it than the rest - both enthusiastic and terrified of failing, they went through the same review tests as everybody else.

At the same time, Tenten, Ino, and Hinata shared their hobbies with one another.

Hinata introduced Ino and Tenten to books, music, and movies. They had movie nights and slumber parties at Tenten's place, traded opinions on books, and even went to their first concert together.

Tenten brewed her friends special herbal supplements and teas, and introduced them to things like astrology, tarot reading, and fortune telling cards with enormous enthusiasm.

Ino took them all out shopping, took them by her Mom's flower shop, and had them participate as a massage receiver, for example, in her ASMR videos.

They were not only preparing at the Academy, they were also having fun outside the Academy together.

* * *

Their private training was now a process of refinement.

They integrated all their fighting skills together, individually against each other, and then collectively against Kurenai.

In the first exercise, Kurenai was merciless when it came to their perfection. Tenten had to use flawless genjutsu to disguise her impending explosions and weapons attacks. Ino had to use perfect genjutsu to lure her victim into coming within her control range. Hinata specialized in using genjutsu to make it look like she was Jyuuken attacking from one place; meanwhile, she snuck around and really attacked from a different place. Her Byakugan had to be precise and her all-tenketsu defenses had to be impenetrable. And, of course, their strength and speed, helped by refined chakra control, had to be frightening to an ordinary Academy student.

But Kurenai also demanded flawless teamwork - when they all fought her together. She would take them through team maneuvers and help them integrate their skills with each other's, emphasizing the importance of each person knowing exactly what the others on their team could do and being able to respond with that in mind.

To that end, they had a usual strategy for fighting Kurenai. The girls would match Kurenai's genjutsu with their own. Then Tenten would let off an explosive tag nearby and, jarred, Kurenai would move instinctively away - Ino would be able to sense out where her Sensei was and would shoot out a ninjutsu to control her movements. Finally, Hinata would move in for a Jyuuken assault.

It was a series of movements they practiced countless times. "Out on the field, knowing where on the team you fit and how to use that could well save your life," Kurenai promised solemnly.

She talked like it just mattered in the abstract no matter what team they were placed on. But secretly, Kurenai already suspected the score.

* * *

Each girl had formed a life for herself.

Ino was content and proud in herself, confident with who she was, both as a strong kunoichi and as a curvier woman. She got along well with her parents, and valued Kurenai-sensei and her two closest friends. Her popular snobbishness and silly fangirl rivalry was a thing of the past. Instead, she stuck up for others she felt were being wronged in some way, and regretted her past self.

Tenten was happy learning to cook and clean, having a place to decorate and call her own, filled with little witchy remedies and plants. She also gained great satisfaction out of knowing she was a ninja clan founder. For the first time in her life, she had an official surname and a set of skills, belonged among Konoha ninja.

Hinata was the heiress of her clan, Neji her branch family head guard. She had secretly decided to do away with branch practices, but openly was polite, graceful, and diplomatic - yet quietly dangerous when faced in a fight. Her father was proud of her. Even her sister had begun to relax cautiously, as she saw with surprise that time had passed and Hinata had not sealed her yet.

So perhaps, even for Hanabi and Hinata, there was hope.

* * *

The Hokage called the Yamanaka, the Nara, the Akimichi, and the Hyuuga clan heads into his office one afternoon. Kurenai walked in - and paused, seeing them all standing there staring at her.

"Ah, Kurenai. Yes, I requested you. Come in," said the little old man with the wood pipe who was Hokage pleasantly.

Kurenai walked forward and stood, proud and firm, at attention.

"I have gathered you all here today," said the Hokage, "because I have made a decision concerning upcoming team placements, and I thought you all deserved to hear why.

"Yamanaka Ino, Hyuuga Hinata, and Hanakiri Tenten have come together under Yuuhi Kurenai and improved themselves in ways I could never have anticipated. They have been incredible for each other, and I do not say that lightly. They are a well oiled fighting machine. They practically are a team already.

"Therefore, I'm going to break convention. I'm going to put the Hyuuga heiress in an active duty team beside a girl who is a relative unknown. And I am going to set the Yamanaka heiress with them, instead of with the Nara and Akimichi as has become custom."

Hiashi paused, and bowed his head. "Hinata has a deep-seated need to prove herself and she would never forgive me if I denied her active duty," he said simply. "Her team has indeed been good for her, as has Yuuhi-san. It is unconventional, which I usually disapprove of, but since it has so far yielded such good results I see no problem," he said with dignity.

Kurenai and the Hokage both relaxed minutely. That was the hardest person taken care of. It helped, probably, that Hiashi still had a second daughter (as awful as that sounded).

Inoichi shrugged. "Honestly, I expected it," he admitted. "Based on Ino's stories and training, that team could become legendary. They've been in the making for years."

Only the Nara and the Akimichi seemed surprised. "Who will be with Shikamaru and Chouji, then?" asked Shikako thoughtfully, rubbing his chin.

"Aburame Shino," the Hokage answered. "Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, and Uzumaki Naruto will then be teamed up together."

Shikako paused and then shrugged. "Well," he said, "it's troublesome, but you know best, Hokage-sama." Chouza smiled and nodded in acceptance.

The Hokage then turned to Kurenai. "And will you, Kurenai, choose to take on this team?"

After an introduction like that?

"Of course," she said warmly. "With all my heart. They have the makings for an excellent team. Besides." Her eyes gleamed mischievously, as her ambition of years before played out in front of her, that ambition formed that day outside the Academy girl's bathroom. "I kind of like the idea of an all-woman team."

* * *

Author's Note: And that's a wrap!

This marks the end of book one. I will post a note up on here telling all my lovely followers when book two has been posted to my author page.

Thanks for following me along the ride!


	7. Book Two Is Up!

Note: Book Two is up on my author page.


End file.
